Thursday, March 5, 2015

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Thank you to the 60 or so people who came along to our recent event, Don't Forget Fukushima: A farming perspective. It was a hugely successful night where stories were heard, insights shared, food eaten and music appreciated. Thanks to Yae, Hiro and Rick for providing the insight.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Get an update on the state of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the state of contamination in general. Nearly four years on, is it safe to be there? What about imported food from Japan? What can we Australians, do? Do we need to know?

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Nearly four years have passed since that the fateful day in March 2011 when northern Japan was hit by massive earthquakes and tsunami. It was the beginning of the worst nuclear accident the humans have experienced. Though some of the scars from the natural disaster have been healed, the disaster continues at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Though proclaimed "under control" by the prime minister Abe to win the Olympic games for 2020 in Tokyo, nothing is far from the truth. If you trust words like this, and believe everything is back to normal, look harder. But who do we ask to find out what is going on in Japan? Our own Rick Tanaka will fill us in. Before settling in Hepburn, Rick spent nearly two years with the Fujimotos, before and after 3/11. Ironically,( for he was an original nuclear refugee from way back) he was in Japan when Fukushima happened. He left Japan when there were only 22 reactors. Mostly in radio, he made a number of programs on nuclear power, ended up an accidental nuclear traveller, having visited the "Europe's worst environmental disaster", a nuclear dumps near Siilamae in Estonia, numerous reactor sites in Japan, and the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu.

He will give an update on the state of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the state of contamination in general. Nearly four years on, is it safe to be there? What about imported food from Japan? What can we Australians, do? Do we need to know?

HRN is extremely pleased to host the evening of community dinner (Japanese theme)with a visiting young farmer family from Japan in January. The Fujimotos are not from an ordinary background. They run the Kamogawa Shizen Okoku farm, one of the best known alternative farms in the country. The pioneering organic farm on the Boso peninsula, about 100kms east of Tokyo, was established in early 1980s by a former radical student movement leader, Toshio Fujimoto. Toshio was the vanguard in the back to land movement as well re-connecting farmers and urban consumers. The farm is credited to be one of the first in the country (therefore in the world) to introduce a subscription farming and Community supported agriculture (CSA).

Yae and Hiro grow rice in small paddies, totalling 1.5 ha, grow veg and run workshops and lectures on the farm. Both are highly regarded among the ecological conscious population.

Yae, mother of three young children, not only farms but also has a successful singing career. Her mother, a household name in the country, Tokiko Kato also takes part in rice planting and harvesting at the farm.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Ebola virus is rapidly developing into a serious problem and we have very little time to contain the spread before it gets really difficult to contain it. We are a very mobile population and this can occur much more easily than at the time of the Black Death. Now is the time to direct help through Brett Adamson, one of our community gardeners, at present back in Australia from working in Liberia with Medecins Sans Frontier in a field camp treating Ebola victims. Please dr cr whatever you can to the HRN bank account and it will go directly to help them in Liberia and other effected areas. Brett says he believes MSF spends the money well and we can direct it to Ebola affected areas. Alternatively make the donation directly to MSF
This video is from some time back and the situation has worsened since then.
Read morePhotographer: John Moore/Getty Images

Family members peer into a bedroom as the body of a man awaits the arrival of an Ebola burial team to take him for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia, on Oct. 17, 2014. Close

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

About Us

The Hepburn Relocalisation Network is a community group based in Hepburn and Daylesford in Central Victoria, Australia. We recognise the urgent realities of peak oil and climate change and are responding by raising awareness about how these issues affect our community, and how we can respond to these realities with a plan for the future. Email us on hrn@internode.on.net

SHARE (SUSTAINABLE HEPBURN ASSOCIATION)

Sustainable Hepburn Association – Renewing the Earth (SHARE) is a not-for-profit, non-political community association run by volunteers. SHARE has around 500 members and is focused on the Shire of Hepburn, Victoria.

DAYLESFORD COMMUNITY FOOD GARDENERS

DCFG are committed to enabling free, just, organic food for locals in an era of climate chaos, peak oil and dislocation from healthy foods and environments. They recognise that gardening together is of both social and ecological value.

RESILIENCE.ORG

Building a world of resilient communities in a world of multiple emerging challenges: the decline of cheap energy, the depletion of critical resources like water, complex environmental crises like climate change and biodiversity loss, and the social and economic issues which are linked to these.

SIMPLICITY COLLECTIVE

The Life Poets’ Simplicity Collective is a grassroots ‘network of imaginations’ founded upon the idea that a simpler life of reduced consumption is a viable and desirable alternative to consumer culture.